Fanning 66 Outpost & World's Largest Rocking Chair

Dan Sanazaro purchased the Fanning property in the 2000s and opened the Fanning 66 Outpost as a roadside trading post deliberately positioned for the Route 66 tourism market. The location — about 4 miles west of Cuba, on a section of Old Route 66 that had survived realignment when I-44 was built — was strategically chosen for visibility to Route 66 road-trippers leaving Cuba heading west toward Rolla and beyond.

The decision to build the world's largest rocking chair came from Sanazaro's recognition that Route 66 tourism rewards distinctive oversized roadside attractions. The Route 66 corridor is famously dotted with oversized objects — the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma, the Cadillac Ranch in Texas, the Wigwam Motels in Arizona, and dozens of smaller roadside landmarks — and a Guinness-record-holding oversized rocking chair was Sanazaro's bet on creating Fanning's own contribution to the Route 66 oversized-object tradition.

Construction took roughly six months in 2008. The chair was fabricated from steel by a regional metal-working company, painted Coca-Cola red (the standard Route 66 highway-marker color that has become the unofficial color of Route 66 commercial signage), and installed on a concrete foundation in the Fanning 66 Outpost gravel lot. The chair was officially measured by a Guinness World Records adjudicator in late 2008 and certified as the world's largest rocking chair at 42 feet 1 inch tall.

The Fanning rocker held the Guinness World Record from 2008 until 2015, when the small town of Casey, Illinois began a deliberate campaign to claim Guinness records for oversized objects as a Route 66-adjacent tourism strategy. Casey is on US Route 40 rather than Route 66 but is positioned for the same demographic of cross-country travelers looking for roadside oddities, and the town's commitment to claiming Guinness records has produced the world's largest mailbox, golf tee, knitting needles, crochet hook, pitchfork, wind chime, and several other oversized objects.

In 2015 Casey constructed an oversized rocking chair specifically designed to surpass the Fanning record. The Casey chair stands 56 feet 1 inch tall — substantially larger than the Fanning chair — and was officially certified by Guinness in 2015. The Fanning property accepted the loss of the world record gracefully; the chair retains its title as the largest rocking chair on Route 66 (Casey is not on Route 66) and is still officially certified as the largest in Missouri.

The competition is genuinely friendly and both properties continue to operate as Route 66-area tourism stops. Many road-trippers visit both as a deliberate pairing — Fanning for the original Route 66 record, Casey for the current overall record — and the chairs together represent the broader American small-town tradition of using oversized roadside objects as tourism drivers.

The chair is visible from Old Route 66 (Highway ZZ in the Cuba area) and is approachable on foot from the Fanning 66 Outpost gravel lot. There is no admission fee, no parking fee, and no required interaction with the trading post — visitors can walk up to the chair, photograph it from any angle, and leave without entering the store. That said, most visitors stop into the trading post for a few minutes after photographing the chair, and the store's merchandise is genuinely worth browsing.

Best photography angles include the head-on shot showing the full height of the chair against the sky (taken from the gravel lot directly in front of the chair), the perspective shot showing a person standing next to the chair for scale (the chair is so large that a 6-foot adult barely reaches the bottom of the seat), and the side angle showing the rocker's curved bottom rail. The chair is red against a typically blue or grey Missouri sky and photographs well in essentially all weather conditions.

The Fanning 66 Outpost itself is open daily from 8am to 6pm (extended hours during peak Route 66 tourism months and during deer-hunting season when the store is a regional supplier for hunters). The chair is technically viewable 24/7 from the highway but the gravel lot is gated outside trading-post hours, so visitors wanting to walk up to the chair need to arrive during the store's open hours. Most road-trippers spend 15-30 minutes at the property including the chair photos and a quick visit to the store.

The trading post is a substantial general-merchandise store occupying a large barn-style building adjacent to the chair. The Route 66 souvenir section is comprehensive — postcards, magnets, t-shirts, mugs, books, posters, and a wide selection of Route 66 highway-marker merchandise. The selection is generally less generic than what's available at chain Route 66 stops and includes several locally-produced items that aren't available elsewhere.

Beyond Route 66 souvenirs, the store carries locally-made jams and jellies (the Crawford County jam selection is particularly good and reflects the region's substantial fruit-growing history), hunting and outdoor gear, fishing tackle, fireworks (in season, mostly summer and the days before July 4), antiques, and a substantial selection of unusual rural-Missouri merchandise that reflects the Outpost's role as a working country store for the surrounding agricultural community. The combination of Route 66 souvenirs and authentic rural merchandise makes the store more interesting than the typical Route 66 gift-shop experience.

The Outpost also operates a small snack counter selling soft drinks, coffee, ice cream, and basic prepared foods (hot dogs, nachos, breakfast burritos during morning hours). The snacks aren't a destination meal but are useful for travelers needing a quick lunch or afternoon break before continuing west toward Rolla. Restrooms are available inside the store.

The natural pairing for Fanning is with the rest of Cuba: complete the Cuba Outdoor Murals walking tour in the morning, drive 4 miles west to Fanning for the rocker photos and a stop at the trading post (30-45 minutes), then return to Cuba for lunch at Missouri Hick BBQ or Shelly's Route 66 Cafe before continuing the day. Many travelers stop at Bob's Gasoline Alley in Cuba on the way back from Fanning, making for a natural late-morning loop.

For travelers continuing west, Fanning is a natural last Cuba-area stop before the 30-mile drive to Rolla. The Fanning rocker, Rolla's Stonehenge replica, and the Totem Pole Trading Post in Rolla form a natural sequence of Route 66 quirky-roadside-attraction stops that can be completed in a single afternoon. Springfield is approximately 130 miles further west — too far for a same-day visit if Fanning is part of the morning itinerary.

For Route 66 completionists, Fanning is one of the dozen-or-so Missouri stops that any serious Mother Road road-trip should include. The combination of the genuine Route 66 trading post, the Guinness-record-history chair, and the easy roadside accessibility makes Fanning a representative stop for the broader Route 66 tradition of oversized roadside attractions. Pack a camera, plan 30-45 minutes, and don't skip the trading post.